The Forbidden Demigod
by That Girl Again
Summary: Hera vowed never to have children with mortal men. Well, with Percy's new rules, Grace's summer is going to be slightly more exciting than sitting in a hammock reading. After TLO, with other characters as the new demigods. Has a plot. *AU to The Lost Hero
1. Chapter 1

It's summer again. Time to head to Camp Half-Blood, my favorite place of all. Thing is, this year, it'll probably be even more packed than my first year, back when I was twelve. And that's saying a lot. And even more considering I survived past sixteen.

I forgot, my name's Percy Jackson, I'm a demigod, son of the sea god Poseidon. My best friend's a satyr named Grover, my half-brother's a Cyclops named Tyson, and my girlfriend is a daughter of Athena named Annabeth. Grover is off somewhere rebuilding the Wild, or maybe looking for more half-bloods. Tyson is probably helping in the underwater Cyclopes forges, but he'll be at camp this summer. Annabeth is living in an apartment in New York, and once school is over today, we're going to hang out, and then my mom and step-dad, Paul Blofis, were going to drive us to camp. Rachel Elizabeth Dare, the new Oracle, was being flown in by one of her father's helicopters later in the week.

Right now, all I had to focus on was getting through the last day of school without any disasters happening, just like they did more often rather than not. I really don't want to say 'What could possibly go wrong?', because in all sit-coms and animated TV shows, that's all it takes for a lightning bolt to crash down on them, and in my case, it could literally happen if Zeus wasn't feeling nice.

Trying to focus, I realize that our principal here at school is telling us what's in store for us next year. And now he's showing pictures from the school prom from a few weeks back. Mom had wanted me to invite Annabeth, but I argued three points: 1) She's in a boarding school, 2) I can't dance, and 3) It'd probably be embarrassing. Plus, Annabeth didn't like proms either, as far as I knew.

Just a few more minutes until school was over. Our principal could not stop talking could he? ...... One more minute....... My hyperactive brain can't take this any longer!..... Thirty seconds....... . Yes!

All the students, specially the seniors, cheered and ran out of the room into the hallway. I followed, glad for the year to be over without any kind of disaster.

I got my things from my locker and walked to the subway shop, where Annabeth was supposed to meet me. And there she was, looking as beautiful as ever. It wasn't that she tried to look beautiful, like the girls in my class even though they failed miserably, because she just _was_ beautiful.

"Hey," I said as I approached her.

"Hey, Seaweed Brain," she said, lacing her fingers through mine. "What are we doing now?"

I smiled. "What do you want to do? Are you packed?"

"I haven't packed," she said. "How about we watch a movie, and then go pack? Have you had lunch yet?"

"I haven't eaten anything edible. School food sucks, but I guess we could go watch a movie." I smiled at her and gestured that we walk toward the general direction of the movie theater in town. She nodded and we walked, bought tickets, watched a movie I didn't see (because I was too busy watching her), and then had lunch. Uneventful, you say? Well, that's how I want it.

Then, after lunch, we went to her apartment and talked while she packed. Then we went to my mom's apartment, where she made small talk with my mom while I packed. I swear I heard my mom giggling about something, but I'd either not like to know, or would find out later. I finished and put my last pair of socks in the bag, then zipped it close.

"Ready!" I called out.

"Ok, sweetie, come on, you'll be late!" my mom yelled back.

I walked out with the bags, to see her and Annabeth standing, both stifling giggles. Annabeth smiled shyly at me as she got her bag. I looked at her more closely. She was wearing jeans, something not unusual for her, and a green T-shirt that was somehow loose and yet fitting at the same time, and Converse sneakers. Her hair, except for her short bangs, was in a high ponytail, and her nails were painted white. She was wearing her wristwatch and normal bracelets, owl earrings, and a class bracelet, and her usual Camp Half-Blood clay necklace. Mine was around my neck, too.

I tore my eyes reluctantly away from her. We walked down to the parking lot, where mom led us to her car. I was quite surprised to see a girl of about twelve years with hair the color of chocolate, and bright blue eyes. She was tall for her age, and she was carrying a bag of her own. She smiled at my mom when she saw her, and she waved. She was wearing jeans and a flower-print sleeveless blouse, and her long hair was braided. She was kind of cute, I guess, just not to me.

"Wonder who _that _is," Annabeth muttered. I nodded. We walked to the car. The girl smiled at Mom.

"Percy, this is Grace. She's another camper that will join you this summer. Her father asked me to give her a ride because he couldn't drive her. He's working," my mother said.

"Uh, ok, mom." What else was I supposed to say?

We loaded all our bags, plus Grace's, and got in. Grace sat in the front seat next to Mom, and Annabeth and I sat in the back. About twenty minutes into the drive, Mom could see we weren't going to make conversation with Grace, so she turned on the stereo. And Pop music blared out. I was about to ask her to please shut Miley Cyrus and her bad voice up, when Grace said: "Ooh, this is my favorite song!"

Annabeth shot me a look, which I shrugged at. Then some Justin Bieber song came on and Annabeth's face lit up. "Do you know this song?" I asked.

"Who doesn't?" Grace squealed from the front.

"Um, yeah, I do. My roommate in school is really into this guy. His lyrics are cute," Annabeth said. She kind of giggled, which was very un-Annabeth-like behavior.

I tried listening to the lyrics, thinking maybe I could decode why girls thought this guy was so cute.

'_So prettier than all the rest, the star of my show  
So many times I wished you'd be the one for me  
But never knew it'd get like this, girl, what you do to me_

_You're who I'm thinking of, girl you ain't my runner up  
No matter what you're always number one_'

I didn't understand why anyone would think it was cute. Sensitive, yes, but cute? What's wrong in girl's minds these day, I don't know. Annabeth's not as brainwashed, but she was mouthing the lyrics.

Anyway, apparently, Mom wanted to get rid of the Pop music ASAP, so she drove extra-fast and we made it to camp before sundown, which was record time. We unloaded our bags and hugged my Mom goodbye. Then she pulled me aside.

"Sweetie, before you get settled, could you take Grace to Chiron. I know you need to clean up, but he didn't know I was bringing someone other than you and Annabeth." She spoke up as she climbed back in the car. "Have fun, honey! Bye!"

We waved and Annabeth and I motioned for Grace to follow us. We walked up Half-Blood Hill, past Thalia's tree and it's dragon, which guarded the Golden Fleece, and went past the cabins, the pavilions, the training arenas, all the way up to the Big House, all the while Grace looking around with big eyes. All of us lugging our bags. Yeah, we got a lot of strange looks, specially from the new campers, the ones who didn't know how different Annabeth and I did things. (Speaking about quests and stuff like that.)

We walked up to the big house, and I was about to knock, when Chiron came up behind us. He was in his wheelchair form, seeing as we'd get loads of new campers today and he didn't like to show his true form during first encounters.

"Percy, Annabeth, it's good to see you two," Chiron said. "Oh, and who's this?" He motioned to Grace.

"Oh, that's Grace. Percy's mom brought her with us. She's a new camper," Annabeth said.

"Oh, well, hello then, Miss Grace," Chiron said. He looked at the nearest satyr and yelled: "Jikley, come show Miss Grace the orientation film!"

A satyr came over and walked Grace to another room while another dragged her duffel bag and suitcase to the Hermes cabin. Then Chiron turned to us. He hadn't changed much since last summer, except that his beard was tidier and his curly hair was about half an inch longer.

"I feel a strong aura from her. A powerful one. We've had new campers flooding in, but something makes me think she's... well, I guess only time will tell." Chiron frowned. "Get set up in your cabins. Clarisse is doing inspection tomorrow, and you know she likes tidiness."

Annabeth and I walked to our cabins, promising to meet in half an hour by the lake.

I made my way to the Poseidon cabin, only to find a girl of around thirteen sitting on a made bed. She jumped up when she saw me.

"Ooh, they told me I wasn't going to be alone!" She hugged me around the middle. "Sorry, my name's Ariana, by the way. I got here a week ago. They told me two more guys were coming." She has sea green eyes and black hair just like me, except she was quite short.

"Hi, Ariana," I said. "You're a daughter of Poseidon? He claimed you?"

"Yeah, like, since I walked through the tree guarded by the dragon, a green trident appeared above my head. People gasped, but I got into this awesome cabin. Some nice girls from the Aphrodite cabin said I'd get two boys who were idiots as cabin mates, but then I talked to the Athena campers and they think you're fine, but they wouldn't tell me about the others. Anyway, I like it here so far. It's so much different from any other camp I've ever been in," she gushed.

"Where do you come from? You don't look like a regular New Yorker," I pointed out.

"Oh, I'm from Puerto Rico. You probably don't know where it is. It's a small island in the Caribbean, near Haiti. It's nice there. Lots of beaches, which also means lots of fishermen. You know how that goes, right?" She smiled.

"I should get settled in," I muttered. I dragged my bag in and unpacked while Ariana talked about herself. Apparently, she'd been friends with some other girls who she'd been sad to leave, or at least she had been until she saw Laura, Marcela, and Richard, her friends and crush from the island. And she was great at pegasus riding, which seemed to please her. I was about ready to go down to the lake ten minutes before when Ariana asked me about Annabeth.

"What's she like?"

"She's smart and cute and funny, and amazing," I said. "I should have to say no more. But what about this Richard guy?"

"He's a son of Apollo, which makes sense, considering he liked to bug girls in a playful way, but he doesn't look like the Apollo kids from here. He's cuter and he's got softer features. And he's smart and funny. And even though he knows I exist, he has no idea I like him." She sighed.

"And why doesn't he know?"

"Cause I'm too shy to tell him?" She made it sound like a question.

"Well, ok then. Why don't we go meet your friends?" She nodded and we walked off toward the arena, where she called out: "Richard! Marcela! Laura!" except she did so with a Spanish accent. Not like from Spain or any other country. More laid back and less formal.

"¿Quien llama?" a male voice called.

"Soy yo, Ariana. Quiero que conozcas a mi 'half-brother' Percy," Ariana said. A guy wearing a loose T-shirt, jeans and sneakers, holding a practicing sword. Now, I didn't know much Spanish, but I knew she said something about wanting him to meet me.

"Oh, okay," the guy said in that laid back accent. Then he spoke in English. "Hey, what's up?" He shook my hand. "I'm Richard, you must be Percy, Ariana's bro. Nice to meet ya, man."

"Yeah, you too, I guess. So, how... uh... how you guys liking camp?" I asked nervously. I had five minutes before I had to meet Annabeth.

"I love it here! I feel like I finally belong," Ariana said. She was looking at me, but I saw Richard produce a small smile, looking at her.

"I like it, but I liked it with Mom, too. I'd like it better if I wasn't so weirded out by the fact that this is actually happening. But at least some people here are people I know," he said. He smiled at Ariana.

Just then, two more girls came in. One was tall with shoulder-length black hair and dark eyes, the other short with light brown hair, brown eyes and freckles over her angular nose. The tall one was tan, the other normal. As they approached, they smiled at Ariana.

"Hey, Marcela, Laura, that's the guy Jenny was talking to me about," Ariana said, pointing at me. She hugged both girls, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Richard frown. "Percy, this is Marcela, a daughter of Aphrodite, and Laura here is a daughter of Athena."

Marcela looked fourteen, and Laura looked twelve. I shook hands with both of them and told Ariana I had to go. It was almost five. They waved and I ran out, running as fast as I could. And as I sat on the pier and caught my breath, Annabeth came up behind me and yelled: "BOO!" and I fell into the lake. I could manipulate the water so I didn't get wet, but I didn't, so when I came out of the lake and climbed onto the pier, I hugged Annabeth and she got soaked. She yelled out and when I let go, she playfully smacked my arm and asked why I was late.

"I got a half-sister, and she wanted to introduce me to her friends, and vice versa, since they used to go to the same school or something," I explained. "You got any new siblings?"

"We have like two new bunk beds, but I'm sure by Friday there will be more." She sighed. "I just hope the gods and the minor gods keep their promise. I mean, with so many new kids, if they don't claim them, the Hermes cabin with be even fuller." She looked out at the lake, like she always did when she was deep in thought. "I wonder who Grace's mom is."

"How do you know she's got a godly mom?" I asked, truly interested.

"Your mother did say _her father_ could not drive her. I don't know how that works," she said.

"Oh." I felt dumb. I mean, my ADHD is to blame that I don't pay attention and remember when it doesn't interest me, but Annabeth had ADHD too and she remembers everything she hears. "Well, she looks familiar, but it's not Athena, and Artemis and Hestia and Hera are out of the list." Annabeth visibly winced when I said 'Hera'. "What, is Hera still bothering you?"

"Let's just say I've been seeing peacock feathers everywhere. It's one of her sacred animals. I was a little confused at first, but then I received a note." She sighed. "Anyway--." The horn rang out, interrupting her and signaling dinner.

"I guess we should go," I said, starting to get up.

"Not before..." She trailed off as she pulled me back down and leaned in. I leaned in and kissed her. I swear, kissing Annabeth is something I will never get used to. It's like adrenaline; when it's gone, you only want more. But all too soon, she leaned back. "Now we can go."

She stood and helped me up, then we walked hand in hand to the mess hall. She made her way to the Athena table with her siblings and I sat at the Poseidon table with Ariana. She kept looking over to the Apollo table until we had to walk up to the fire and sacrifice our better bits of food. Then the other tables followed. As the Hermes campers finished up, with Grace sacrificing last, something no one expected to EVER happen happened.

A white peacock feather appeared above Grace's head.

People gasped, made 'What the hell?' faces. Some whispered to their siblings. Others even commented loud: "NO WAY!"'s. But Grace's reaction was the best.

She ran out screaming like she'd been cursed for the rest of her life. Which, being the daughter of Hera, a goddess who vowed never to have children with mortal men, it was kind of a curse.


	2. Chapter 2

After last night's dinner incident, Grace hadn't been seen. She was scared about what would happen, because even though when I got here I hadn't been shown the orientation video, I knew it covered the basics, like which were the goddesses who didn't have children, and the ones who vowed never to have children with mortal men. That included Hera. And she was a daughter of Hera. Which wasn't technically forbidden, but it looked bad. I remember back when I first found out I was a forbidden son of Poseidon, which actually _was_ forbidden.

But it was noon, and nobody had seen her. Chiron was worried, which was not even close to how Mr. D, our camp director, was feeling.

Now we had the older campers looking for her while the newbies trained and took lessons. Annabeth, Travis and Connor Stoll, and I were looking in the forest. We found one of her bracelets just a few minutes ago, so we were confident we were on the right track.

"This is weird," Travis said.

"What?" Annabeth asked. "Looking for a little girl in the forest on her first day of camp?"

"No," Connor said. "That Hera would have a kid with a human. She's so adamant about Zeus' kids, and yet she has one? It's just weird."

"Agreed," Annabeth and I said. "Wait, shut up!" I heard something. Like snapping twigs. And we stopped as the sound came closer. "What is that?" I whispered.

"Maybe it's one of the smaller monsters..." Connor whispered. Then a louder noise, like someone stepping on leaves and twigs, rang out. And then a sound like someone tripping, and a female shriek.

We ran toward it and knelt next to the person who tripped-- Grace. Great place, isn't it?

We helped Grace up and checked for bruises, then sat down beside her in the forest.

"What are you doing here?" she asked miserably.

"Looking for you, Grace," Annabeth said in a sweet and gentle tone. "Is something wrong?"

"I know I wasn't supposed to be born. I'm not supposed to be here. Nobody wants me here. So I'll disappear," Grace said stubbornly.

"Grace, we got half the camp looking for you. Every half-blood out there deserves a chance to train, and you're no different. Plus, if Hera didn't want you, then she wouldn't have claimed you. Now come on," Annabeth said. She was getting really good at the whole 'Supportive' thing.

Slowly, Grace stood up. And we walked back to camp. Travis and Connor went off to tell Chiron we'd found her, and Annabeth went to get her bag from the Hermes cabin, which left me to take her to the Hera cabin, something I wasn't too excited about. But I walked her to the cabin and opened the door. She explored the place, as did I. It was painted white, with very elegant touches, including a silver vanity, and a bed with a unique silver bed side table. A very nice cabin. The bed sheets and pillows were white, and it was all in all very Hera. But Grace slumped down on the bed as if it were a dirty sleeping bag someone left on the forest floor back when Achilles' heel was just his heel.

"What? You don't like it?" I asked.

She looked up and glared. "Oh, this is what I get for being a forbidden child? A nice room, no siblings, people gossiping about me? Then I'd rather be a daughter of Iris!" she said.

"Hey, hey, we have daughters and sons of Iris, so please don't yell that out. And, you have to remember I'm a forbidden child, too. And my first day of knowing was like that too. But it's just embarrassing to know your parent couldn't stop himself, or herself, but that's what it is. You've gotta get over it. And besides, I have a sister here, and a brother who is coming this Friday. You're not the only one who feels this way. But you've got to embrace it and go on," I told her.

She was about to argue when Annabeth came in, carrying one of Grace's bags. A boy from the Hermes cabin from last year was helping her with the second. They left the bags just inside, by the door, and the guy smiled at Annabeth and left. Annabeth smiled at me and walked up to me.

"How's she holding up?" she whispered.

"She hates being a forbidden child," I whispered in her ear.

"Grace, we'll leave you alone to unpack, and you can come by lunch, which is in twenty minutes. Remember to ask Chiron for your schedule before the afternoon lessons," Annabeth said. "Bye, now." And we walked out of the cabin.

We walked past the strawberry fields and into the Big House. Mr. D was there, and from the looks of it, as always, he was bored and grumpy. He looked up when we approached.

"Peter, Annie, what are you doing here? Don't you have lessons, or something?" he said.

"We were looking for the daughter of Hera. We wanted to tell you we found her," Annabeth said.

"Yeah, funny you should mention the brat. What was her name....? Gina? Gertrude? Whatever. That little girl is causing havoc in Olympus. All the gods who are sons of Hera are outraged their mother would break her vow, but Zeus is acting like he expected it. Maybe Gigi wasn't the first kid of Hera we've had. Maybe Hera was too ashamed or something to claim the kid. Whatever the reason, she's in some trouble. It doesn't matter that she's Queen of the Heavens. Even Persephone wrote to her. Why does it always have to be you who causes the trouble?" Mr. D said.

"_Me_? What has this got to do with me?" I asked.

"You brought the kid in," Mr. D said.

"Yeah, but it's not our fault she was a daughter of a broken vow!" Annabeth said.

"Go back to your lessons," Mr. D said in his dangerous voice. His eyes flashed with the purple fire I saw when he was pissed. And Annabeth and I understand that we are in a danger zone. It was pretty clear that Mr. D was pissed about the whole thing, just like I guessed Ares and Hephaestus would be. And Annabeth and I did the smartest thing we could think of-- we ran away until we were no longer in sight of Mr. D.

"I guess it's not only Grace who's upset about this," Annabeth said as we walked along the shore of the beach.

"Well, think about it. So many heroes and gods who were sired by Zeus had their mothers suffer because of Hera, and now it comes out she had a kid too. Wouldn't you be mad?" I reasoned.

"I am. But then again, I'm not. Mostly because...." Annabeth looked at the water, then back at me. "Athena visited me during the school year. She told me not to worry about the campers for this year, because Hera had put a spell on all the Olympians, Hades and the minor gods so that every time a half-blood entered the camp, the child's godly parent was forced to claim them."

"Well, then it's her fault." I sighed. "Do you think anymore kids like that will come?"

"What? Depressed because they're forbidden children? I hope not. You weren't like that, and I know Thalia wouldn't have been, and your sister, from what I've seen isn't, but you're all different weirdos. You had Grover and you were accepted almost immediately, Thalia never even got here, and Ariana has her best friends here. But Grace has nothing but a broken promise. I just hope that these kids cope," Annabeth said.

I was about to say something when the horn rang. Annabeth and I made our way past sweaty and, in some cases, bloody campers. We sat on our respective tables and waited for the rest of our siblings. Her brothers and sisters joined her soon. Ariana, however, came in deep in conversation with Marcela, the Aphrodite girl, and Ariana was blushing. She said goodbye to her friend and walked to our table.

"Why are you as red as a strawberry?" I asked.

"Isn't the saying 'Why are you as red as a tomato?'" she chided.

"Yeah, but here, the strawberries are redder here than the tomatoes. Now answer my question!"

"She was talking to me about setting me up......" She paused.

"Uh-huh..." I prompted.

"...... She was trying to...." She spoke the next part so fast I hardly understood. "Set me up with a guy from the Aphrodite cabin!"

"And may I know why?" I asked.

"She wants to know if Richard likes me or not," Ariana explained.

"Why don't you just ask him?" I asked.

"It's _embarrassing_. How would you feel if Annabeth had asked you if you liked her?" She saw my blush. "Exactly. Plus, if I ask him, I limit myself to a simple 'no' or 'yes'. If he talks to Marcela or Laura about it, asking why I'm dating the guy, then they get a better explanation of what he feels. But I don't wanna go through with it. I don't want to date him. He's like all the Aphrodite guys, more concerned about looks than anything else."

"Yeah." Something occurred to me. "You know, Annabeth told me that a few years ago, before I started, a guy from the Aphrodite cabin was so into his looks he turned gay. He wasn't, like, made fun of, but he grew up and left camp. Now he's an actor who wins a lot of money."

"Are you talking about Robert Pattinson?!" Ariana whisper-yelled.

"Never thought of him. No, I doubt it. He's British, right? This guy was American." I sighed. "Anyway, let's sit straight so we can get our food."

We sat quietly and patiently, waiting for our food. We talked about our morning. She'd been training archery with the Apollo kids, something she liked. Apparently, she was getting better. I told her I'd been looking for Grace. She nodded and thanked the person who brought us our food.

"I heard about that," she said. We started getting up to sacrifice our biggest pizza slice. "She was the Hera kid, right?"

"Yeah." She slipped the pizza with the most pepperonis in it into the fire and walked back to the table. I dropped the bigger one and followed her, behind me the Ares cabin. I sat across from Ariana and started eating. The pizza was good. And on our cups, she drank Coke and I drank Iced Tea. I don't know why, but it seemed weird to drink Coke at camp. Not just at Camp Half-Blood, but any camp. Here, you got an empty glass, you asked for what you wanted, and you got it. And it seemed weird to drink Coke.

We ate in silence, Ariana staring at Apollo table, while I had a silent conversation with Annabeth. Annabeth kept looking over at the Hera table, to no avail. Grace wasn't having lunch, apparently. That girl would obviously need help and counseling.

After an uneventful lunch, Annabeth and I took off for our Greek Mythology class. We were teaching it. We were old-timers now, and since we'd been there during the war last year, we were teaching the class. And because Annabeth and Chiron used to teach the class, back when the Trojan War and the War of Troy were the only wars to teach.

And Grace was supposed to be in this class. I knew all the new kids and the ones from last year were required to take the class. And she wasn't here. All the new kids from the Apollo, Hephaestus, Ares, Hermes cabins and my sister were here. And that's a lot of people. But this "classroom" was almost as big as the throne room in Olympus, and now it had thrones for the minor gods and for Hades, so it was twice as big. Of course, the minor gods' thrones weren't as big as the Olympians' thrones, but they were still bigger than any chair my butt would reach.

Anyway, I told Annabeth about Grace not being in the class.

"Maybe she's getting her schedule from Chiron.....?" She sounded doubtful. Then she looked at the class.

"Hey, welcome campers. My name's Annabeth Chase, that's Percy Jackson. We're going to be teaching Greek Mythology," Annabeth said in a louder voice than usual. Then again, this was a huge room, and it didn't even have walls. It just had a few columns holding the roof. As I looked at the architecture, courtesy of Annabeth, a guy from the Apollo cabin raised his hand.

"Hey, what are we learning in this class?" he asked.

"What's your name?" Annabeth asked.

"Harry," he said.

"Well, Harry, in this class we'll be covering all the Olympians, the history, and most of the important wars, including last year's, which we participated in," Annabeth said. I think she looked at me for support or something, but she saw me staring at the sky and smacked my arm, hard.

"What?!" I said.

"Pay attention!" She turned back to the class. "Guys, as my dear friend Percy here has so very nicely noticed, the architecture of this building is new. I designed it," she said, blushing.

A girl from the Hermes cabin raised her hand. "My name's Rosalinda, Rose for short, and one of the older campers told me you two weren't just friends," she said, smiling.

"And is that your business?" I piped up. She looked at me and blushed. "Didn't think so."

Annabeth cleared her throat after a few moments of silence. "Um, well, yeah. Thanks, Percy." She smiled at me. I looked at my watch. This was a seventy minute-class. We had sixty-five left. Gods, if this is boring for me, then I can't imagine what it's like for them.

"Um, does anyone know how the gods came about?" I asked to make things interesting.

Ariana, a guy and a girl from the Ares cabin, Richard and another boy from the Apollo cabin, twins from the Hephaestus cabin, and two girls from the Hermes cabin raised their hands.

"Ok, we don't all know each other, so as I call your cabin, you stand up, say your name, and then sit back down." I looked at Annabeth for support. She nodded. "Now, the Ares cabin."

Three people stood up. One girl and two guys. The girl had long brown hair and dark eyes, and she was tall, with an athletic look. The two boys were tall, with dark hair, but one had blue eyes, while the other had brown, and they were both buffed up.

"I'm Ashley," the girl said. Then she sat down again.

The blue-eyed guy said: "I'm Ryan," and sat back down. And the other guy said: "My name's Joseph," and sat down with his cabin mates.

"Thank you," Annabeth said. "Now the Apollo cabin, please."

Two boys stood up. One was Richard and the other was taller, with shaggy hair and dark eyes.

"I'm Richard," Richard said in that laid-back accent. He was about to sit down when a girl asked: "Why do you talk like that?"

"Like what?" he said.

"Like, I don't know, with an accent. It's just like, weird," she said.

"You should be glad I can speak English, for all you care," he said. He sat down. And suddenly I realized what she meant. Out of all the kids Ariana had introduced me to, Richard was the only one who didn't speak English like an American. Ariana, Marcela and Laura did. I wondered how that felt.

But I didn't have much time to wonder, because the other guy spoke: "I'm Harry, and if anyone messes with me or my cabin mates, I'm make sure someone pounds you to dust." And he sat back down.

"Thank you for those kind words of motivational wisdom, Harry," Annabeth said. "Hephaestus cabin?"

Four kids stood up, two of them twins. Now, I should tell you the Hephaestus kids aren't the pretties you'll ever see, but one of them had a serious case of acne, and his hair was short, but very bushy. The twins both had bushy hair, but it looked like Chase's, from Zoey 101. The other was a girl, and she had crazy curly hair all over the place, and braces.

The girl spoke first: "My name is Vicky." Then she sat down.

One twin said: "I'm Jerry...." and the other said: "And I'm freaking Jason. So don't get us mixed up!" And they sat down.

And the other guy spoke up: "I'm Gerard." And he sat back down. I noticed he had an accent just like Richard's, only his voice sounded lazy, so his accent sounded tired.

"Ok, well, Hermes cabin, it's your turn." Annabeth looked at the big group of kids in the corner. Slowly, they stood up. They were five, three being girls. One of them was the girl who'd asked Annabeth and me about our relationship (Gosh, that's so weird to think about!) and another the one who had asked Richard about his accent. They both had dirty blond hair, but their features were different. Rose had almond-shaped eyes the color of ice and the other deep blue eyes. The other girl was taller and leaner, with longer hair that was light brown, and small light blue eyes.

Rose spoke first: "As you better all the hell know, I'm Rosalinda, called Rose. Go to Hades if you didn't know." And she sat back down.

The girl who spoke to Richard said: "I'm freaking Zoey." And she sat back down. And the third girl moved slightly, more like a flinch, with difficulty, like something was bothering her.

"I'm Alexi, and I would appreciate it if you didn't touch my back," she said. She sat back down slowly.

The boys were different. One looked twelve and the other looked fifteen or sixteen. The younger one had dark eyes and dirty blond hair, and he wasn't well-built. The other was well-muscled and with darker hair, and icy blue eyes.

The younger one spoke: "I'm Alec." And he sat back down. He looked terrified, being here, not just in the class, but in camp, like he expected a monster to randomly come up and attack.

"I'm Chase," said the older guy, as he sat down.

"Great, now that we've got that all cleared up, who can tell me how the Titans started?" Annabeth said. A few people raised their hands, but Ariana stood up.

"What?" Annabeth asked.

"She didn't say her name, jerk!" Rose yelled.

Annabeth blushed. "Um, Poseidon cabin," she tried.

"I'm Ariana, and I don't enjoy being forgotten," Ariana said. She sat back down glumly. I tried to smile at her, but she was looking down. And I knew she wanted _someone_ to comfort her, but Chiron had a strict 'No camper moves from his/her cabin' rule. And unless you want to face cleaning the toilets for a week, you follow Chiron's rules.

And after that little incident, Annabeth gave the class while I inserted little pieces of information she forgot, which was very un-Annabeth-like behavior. And then Annabeth and I went walking around, reading reports for Chiron. As senior campers, we helped Chiron when all the newer campers trained.

And, in case you're wondering, mostly we had new campers, except for the younger ones because most demigods who weren't killed before eighteen tried to do something with their lives and some were out looking for colleges and others were moving in and others in college prep classes. So the only old timers that were here were Tyson, Clarisse, Mark and Sherman from the Ares cabin, Will from the Apollo cabin, Katie from the Demeter cabin, Annabeth and Malcom from the Athena cabin, Travis and Connor from the Hermes cabin, Pollux from the Dionysus cabin, and me. And Nico was going to give camp a try. He would be arriving next week.

After a short discussion, Annabeth and I decided to go ask Chiron what we should do to help Grace. And as we walked up to the archery class he was teaching, we saw him arguing with a chocolate-color haired woman. She was tall and beautiful, and she was the reason for Annabeth's problem with peacocks, and Grace's depression.

Hera.


	3. Chapter 3

st

Let's just say Hera is definitively not my favorite person. She had nearly killed Annabeth one time, and she wasn't really all that nice to either of us the rest of the time.

So you can imagine seeing her in my sanctuary, Camp Half-Blood, was not the best thing to happen.

And seeing her angry wasn't all that great, either.

She was arguing with Chiron. When she turned to us, I noticed her normally brown eyes were black with rage. And as if that wasn't enough to get me alarmed, she screeched when she saw me and ran at me.

"Why in the Hades would you bring little Grace here, you despicable child?!?!?!" she yelled.

"Uh--I--um, well, uh--" I stuttered.

"How did you fucking find her?!?!?!?!" It shocked me that the Queen of the Heavens would say such a dirty word. Sure, people at school used it, and sometimes, in great times of frustration, I did too, but she was the Queen of the _Heavens_. Doesn't that count for anything? "I had her under perfect safety! She was not supposed to come here! What the hell happened?!?!?!?"

And even my teachers' fury was none to match this. "Um, I-- Well, my mom--- she-- She found---." I could not stop stuttering.

"Leave him alone! You're the one who pledged never to have kids with anyone but Zeus! And _you_ claimed her!" Annabeth yelled. I really hoped nothing happened, because Hera was glaring daggers at her, and as far as I knew, she really could do that.

"Now, let's discuss this calmly, shall we, my Lady?" Chiron chimed in, sensing the obvious tension in the air.

"Fine. I will come back in thirty-three minutes. Meanwhile, I need my baby ready to go. Packed, cleaned, but she can't know what's going on. Got it?" she said viciously. We all nodded our heads off, and she started getting brighter and brighter. We looked away, knowing if we saw her true form, we'd disintegrate. When the light was gone, she was, too. Annabeth breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well, I guess we'll go get Grace ready," Annabeth said. "She was in her cabin, right?"

I nodded, and she began to walk in the general direction of the cabins. I grabbed her arm and pulled her back, facing Chiron. "She can't actually take Grace away, can she? This is where all demigods belong. She shouldn't leave," I said.

"She does actually have the power to keep Grace away from camp, and she can train her somewhere else. I certainly hope she doesn't actually do it, though." He shook his head. "In any case, tell Grace to pack up and get ready. But do not tell her why. This must stay a secret. Now, go."

We walked back to the cabins and entered the Hera cabin, only to find Grace weeping on her bed. As soon as she saw us, which was pretty quick, considering the door creaked since it hadn't been used in the history of forever, she sat up.

"Don't make me go out there! Everyone will tease me and give me a hard time! Please!" she wailed. It was so pitiful, watching and not being able to do anything.

"Hey, shh, shh," Annabeth whispered. She sat on Grace's bed and threw her arms around Grace's shoulders. "We need you to pack your stuff and get all clean and tidy, Gracie." Annabeth kept her arms that way until Grace was only sniffling.

"Am I going back with Daddy?" she asked.

"We're not sure yet, sweetie, but we need you packed and ready in half and hour," Annabeth said. "Can you do that for me?" Grace nodded. "Do you want me to help you?"

"No, no, it's ok. I'll do it myself. Meet me here in half an hour, k?" We nodded, she smiled through her almost-gone tears, and we left.

We spent twenty minutes sitting in the pier, wishing nothing catastrophic would happen so early in the summer, and yet, knowing Hera, and a demigod's luck, there wasn't much to hope for.

At two, we went to the Hera cabin, and found Grace with her bag zipped up, the bed made, and her hair was in a perfectly groomed high ponytail. It cascaded down in soft curls, much like Demi Lovato's, and she was wearing a loose T-shirt, jeans, Converse sneakers, and a green hoodie. Her Ray Ban sunglasses were on her head, much like a headband.

She smiled and walked towards us. Annabeth glanced at herself, clearly seeing the difference. She was wearing her orange camp T-shirt, old jean shorts, worn out black low-cut Converse, she had a slight sheen of sweat above her upper lip from the heat, and she'd been running around all day, and at practice, she had fallen, so her left leg was caked with dirt she hadn't been able to clean up. I held her hand and whispered: "You're perfect." She gave me a grateful smile, but continued squirming uncomfortably.

We walked towards the big house, and saw Chiron and Hera. She was wearing skinny jeans, a pink blouse, her hair was in perfect curls, and she looked great. The only thing that made her look frightening instead of beautiful? Her eyes. They were black flames. Scary, black flames.

"Is that my mom?" Grace whispered in my ear, standing on her tip-toes. I nodded slightly. Her shoulders sagged.

"Disappointed?" I asked.

"She looks like a bitch," Grace simply said. Like mother, like daughter, I guess.

Annabeth chuckled. Typical. Once you hate someone, you love hearing insults directed at them. Figures why Annabeth only made me hate Luke even more until my birthday last year.

Hera walked quickly towards us, and her eyes warmed to their usual brown when they saw Grace. Her eyes raked Grace's figure, and she smiled kindly. It was creepy.

"Oh, so you're Charlie's daughter. I had faith in you! You're so cute! Look at those sunglasses!" Hera squealed. My ears rang with the sound. It was odd. "Unfortunately, you can't stay here. We're going back. You're going to your father's and I'll watch over you and train you."

"Whoa, whoa, Miss Hera, wait," Chiron said. "Let's discuss this calmly. How about in the meeting room. We don't have to have everyone there. Just the ones who know Grace. Who would that be, Grace?"

"Annabeth, Percy, and that girl who was sitting with him. His sister, I think," Grace said. "But I can't go back to my dad's. He's sick. He's got a very serious disease. It's why he sent me here."

"Why don't we discuss this in the rec room, then?" Chiron suggested yet again.

Hera nodded slowly, and I volunteered to go get Ariana, and Annabeth tagged along. I knew she just wanted to get away from Hera, even if she pretended to have some sort of connection with my sister.

"Phew, I'm glad I'm not with her," Annabeth said as soon as we were out of earshot.

"Yeah. You know, Grace has her mother seized up all right. She said Hera looked like a bitch," I commented as we made our way towards the bulletin board, which had all the schedules posted up.

"A bitch she is, that's for sure." Annabeth laughed. We arrived at the bulletin board, right outside the bathrooms. "Ok, let's see. Um, Poseidon cabin, Saturday, two p.m....... Ah! She's in archery. Let's go."

We walked to the archery practice and asked the teacher if we could borrow Ariana for a moment. She blushed, but followed us out anyway.

"What is this about? Am I in trouble?" she asked.

"No, no. You remember Grace?" Her expression darkened, and she yelled before I could continue speaking.

"You mean his ex?! Cause, yeah, I do remember her! And I never liked her! At all! Why are you asking me this? How do you even know about her?!?"

"What Grace are you talking about?" I asked, alarmed.

"That cheerleader, flirty, kiss-up, bad-haired, never-let-anyone-near-him-without-my-being-there Grace!" she yelled.

"Who is that? I'm talking about the Hera girl." She blushed deeper.

"Sorry. One of my friends back in Puerto Rico hated Grace Coll, and she always was mean," Ariana excused herself. "What is this about the Hera kid? She's like a year younger than me, right?"

"She is, and she wants you there. Her mom's here to decide what they're gonna do, and Grace said she wants you there," I explained.

"Oh, well, that's different. Ok, then let's go." And we walked back to the rec room.

Once there, I made sure that I was between Annabeth and Ariana, and that Grace was not near her mother, in case she lost it and changed and we all died, and then Chiron began to talk.

"Grace, do you wish to stay in Camp Half-Blood and train?"

"Um, I guess. What other choice do I have?" She meant it as a rhetorical question, but of course, Hera offered her stupid idea.

"You could come train and live with me," Hera said.

"Lady Hera, with all due respect, why do you wish to take young Grace away?"

"She will be trained by me. And she will be raised by me. You will simply twist her mind like you've done the ones of so many demigods. We saw how many they were just last summer. I don't want that to happen to my little girl!" Hera stated.

"I'm not your little girl!" Grace piped up. "You don't know me! Up until now, I thought my mom was someone who'd walked out on my dad, simply because she didn't want to have a family! You can't tell me what to do!"

"I am your mother whether you like it or not, young lady. And you will do as I say. Is that clear?" Hera threatened.

"Actually, she entered the camp, which means she is my responsibility, and unless she has proven herself a true hero, she cannot leave," Chiron said.

"What do you mean 'proven herself a true hero'!?" Hera yelled.

"I'm pretty sure he means a quest," Ariana piped up.

"So, if she survives the quest, then she comes with me?!?!" Hera yelled. "That's insane!"

"No, you're in--." If I hadn't slapped my hand over Annabeth's mouth, I'm pretty sure she would've been murdered.

"And she must have at least two weeks of training before going on a quest," Chiron reminded us. "Besides, our Oracle is not even here. Rachel arrives next week, right?"

I nodded.

"So, let's get this straight. If I survive training and that quest then I go with _her_?" Grace clarified.

No one answered and her fears were confirmed. Annabeth and I had lead a quest, and we both knew it was no fun, and how it felt. You felt scared, alone and alienated, not to mention lost. And it must've been harder on Grace, considering this was practically her first day at camp.

Chiron decided to ignore her small comment.

"And, as you very well know, she must have at least two weeks of camp training."

"Very well, then. If she does not recieve a quest in two weeks, then I will personally come down here and shake some sense into the foolish girl you call the Oracle," Hera threatened. She glowed brighter and brighter until we looked away. When we looked back she wasn't there.

That was about when Grace lost it and burts into tears.

"Aw, shh, shh," Ariana shushed. She got up from her chair and went over to Grace. She hugged her in the same way Annabeth had, and shushed her sweetly.

And I knew from this point on the girls would be friends. They bonded over this. Grace was scared, and Ariana and Annabeth were comforting her.

Finally Grace was only sniffling, and Chiron decided to tell Grace to pack up and get ready for some sword-fighting lesson. She nodded and grabbed her bag, then walked out. Ariana offered to go with her, but Grace said she wanted to be alone.

Once she was gone, Annabeth huffed. "On her first day of camp, she gets a quest. I had to wait _7 years_!!! That is so not fair!"


	4. Chapter 4

"Come on, Grace! The only way to be prepared for the quest is to train!" I yelled.

Grace's first day of training had been good only because she'd been determined to do the best she could. The next few as well. The rest of the week? Not so much. Let's just say the whole idea of "exercise" wasn't big with her.

"Shut up!" she yelled. It was eight in the morning, and breakfast was going to be over soon, and she wasn't even in camp clothes. Still in her pajamas. "We both know I won't be ready for the damn quest anyway, so let's just think of this as relaxation time, alright?"

"Fine, but if we have to face a big monster, ou'll probably die first, okay?" I teased. Annabeth, standing next to me, rolled her eyes.

"Grace, it's me, sweetie!" Annabeth said. "Come on, if you don't get up the Hermes' kids will take all the bacon!"

I heard movement, what sounded like a light quilt being dropped on the floor, running water, some gurgling, and some shelves being ripped open, and then about fifteen seconds later, Grace came out. Her hair was in a messy ponytail, she was wearing very short jeans shorts, flip flops and her camp T-shirt had a green stain from where she'd dripped her ice cream on herself yesterday. She looked like she could use a shower, but ready enough, and she walked with Annabeth and me to the mess hall. I sat with Ariana and Annabeth sat with her siblings, and Grace sat in the empty table.

"He's looking at me!" Ariana whispered, looking at me directly in the eyes.

"Who?" I asked, looking around. I caught Richard's eye, and suddenly I knew why Ariana was so bubbly. "Oh, you mean Rich--?"

"Shh!" she shushed me. "I don't want him to _know_! Quick, tell me something totally trivial."

She chewed her toast with interest as she waited expectantly for me to say something.

"Um, can you help me get Grace motivated to train?" I asked. I looked at the nymph and asked her for toast and bacon and she brought it, then I walked and offered the bacon strip with the least fat and the most buttered toast to the gods and tossed it in the fire. I walked back to the table and sat. I noticed Ariana hadn't put down the piece of toast she was biting, even though what was left was only the crust.

"Dude, you've got to act like you don't notice him looking at you, or like you don't care," I said. "Otherwise, he'll know you like him, and then--." She cut me off.

"I know, I know, se pone bien guillao' and that sucks," she said. She spoke in that laid-back accent again. **(Se pone bien guillao' means he gets all cocky.)**

"You know you just spoke Spanish and I have no idea what you said," I said.

"Yeesh. It also sucks having a sibling who doesn't understand you," she complained. "Whatever."

We finished in silence and she went off to her class, and I looked for Grace. However, before I could find her, a hand caught my arm. I turned and caught eyes with the guy holding my arm. Richard. Last time I'd seen him, I hadn't really noticed it much, but he was a little bit good-looking. He had dark brown eyes with a twinkle always in them, and dark brown hair gelled in short spikes. And his skin wasn't too dark, but he was really tan.

"What, man?" I asked. "I gotta go."

"I just wanted to ask you something," he said. He looked around us and then added: "In private."

We walked to a corner and he looked me in the eye.

"Can you find out if Ariana likes me?" he asked.

"What?"

"Can you ask her? Please?"

"Um, I'll try," I said. I tried to walk away, but he held me back.

"But don't make it sound like I asked you to ask her," he said.

How do I do_ that_?

"Sure thing, man," I said. I tried to walk away, but he held me back once again.

"And also tell her to please talk to me about what happened at the Prom," he said. I nodded and this time he let me go. I shook my head as I walked towards Grace's table, but I didn't find her there. I met up with Annabeth and we walked to the Hera cabin and I heard running water. She was taking a shower, then.

"Annabeth, what do you do if you know two people like each other even though those two people don't know the other likes them, and one asked you to find out if the other likes him?" I asked. She looked at me like I was some alien, and then her eyes looked at the Poseidon cabin, where Ariana was looking for her iPod, and where the Apollo kids were practicing archery.

"Lemme guess, Ariana told you she likes Richard and then he asked you to ask her if she likes him. Is that correct?"

"How do you _do_ that?" I asked.

"It's a gift girls are born with," she said, only half-joking.

..........

The week went by, Annabeth, Ariana and me training Grace, and soon it was Saturday again. Today Ariana was expecting a few friends from Puerto Rico to come, and she wouldn't let me forget it. Danny, Karla, Carmen and Mara, all from her school, were coming.

"And Danny's funny, and super-tall, and then Karla is like my Angela! She's super sweet and trustworthy! Carmen is just like a ball of sunshine, only she's so short! And she laughed at my stress ball! And Mara is super tall, but my glare, even without eyeliner scares her!" she gushed over breakfast.

"You're always saying how great you look in eyeliner," I commented. "How come you never wear it?"

"Um, it's kind of dark for summer camp, or at least like a normal day, and Richard once told me I looked psycho with it," she muttered. She blushed. "But if we have like a special occasion I'll wear it!"

I smirked and finished my toast, but waited for Ariana to be done. Her friends would be arriving around noon, and Ariana wanted to spend time with me until they came. So after we were done, we walked to the cabin and she made her bed while telling me about her Prom. Which reminded me of a question someone asked me to ask her.

"Oh, yeah, Richard asked me to ask you to talk to him about what happened at the Prom," I said.

Her head snapped up and she glared at me. "He said _what_?"

"He asked if you could talk to him about what happened at the Prom," I repeated.

"I am _not _talking about that!" she yelled. She turned and grabbed me around the shoulders. "You can tell him I am not talking about that, ever!"

She rushed out and slammed the door of the cabin, and I saw her run across the space at a speed I'd never seen her at. I watched her until she disappeared.

I took off after her, trying to catch her, as I saw her sitting in the pier, her head in her hands.

"Ariana?" I called out. Only, I wasn't the only one to call out. She didn't look my way, as the other person was in exactly the other side to where I was standing. She and I looked at him, and she looked back down and tried to stop crying as he slowly walked closer. I hid behind a tree, knowing I shouldn't be seeing this.

**Ariana POV:**

Richard called out my name, and I made the mistake of looking. I saw him, standing there, looking as cool and easy-breezy as he always did. I looked back down and tried to control my sobbing. Even though he'd hurt me so badly, I'd chosen to forget it. Because if he'd done it, it was clear he didn't regret it. He wanted to talk to me about it. Probably to ask me not to tell anyone about, now that his best friend's brother was coming. I felt him sit next to me on the pier.

I was looking at the lake through the cracks in the wood. He touched my bare arm and sent tingles up my skin.

"What are you doing?" I whispered.

"Do you want me to stop?" he asked.

I didn't, but I couldn't act like a stupid girl, like if I did like him when he clearly didn't.

"Yes." He stopped touching my arm and I covered the spot he'd touched with my right hand. "Why do you want to talk about what happened at Prom?"

"Because I want you to understand," he explained. He threw his arms around me, hugging me from the side, and it felt so good. I looked at him straight in the face, my eyes questioning what he was doing.

"What do you want me to understand?" I asked. "I saw you kissing her. Te gusta. Not much to say about it." **(Te gusta = You like her.)**

"But I don't like her." He looked me in the eye and I got distracted by the twinkle I liked that was always there. "She threw herself onto me. It meant nothing."

I didn't know what to do. We were just friends. And I was too much of a coward to ever tell him I liked him.

So I stood up.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"I have to wait for Danny, Karla, Mara and Carmen," I told him. His eyes brightened as I said the last name. "I'm sure you're real happy Carmen is coming. That way you're not just alone and forced to hang out with Marcela and Laura and me. That way you can talk to her."

"What? You think I don't like hanging out with you and Marcela and Laura?" He stood up, too, so now he was just a bit taller than me. That took away some of my confidence. "You think that after this summer I'll just go back to being the guy I was. Not even talking to you?"

"Um, _yes_," I said. I started to walk away, miffed. I didn't look back once, but when I rounded past a tree, I saw Percy, staring at me.

**Percy POV:**

She rounded the tree, and I planned to move out and run away, but I knew that either she'd already seen me, or if I ran she'd hear me. As I decided what to do, keeping her within my sight, she saw me. She gasped.

"Did you just see all of that?"

"Um, yes?"

She grabbed my shoulder and pushed me against the tree. "Why would you do that? It was a private conversation!"

"I didn't say I heard it," I offered.

"Oh, but I know you did," she yelled.

True enough.......

"Ariana, why does it freak you out so much?" I asked.

She let go of my shirt and took a step back, along with a deep breath. "I just like having my privacy, okay?"

She walked back to the cabin and I stared at Richard. He was still sitting in the pier.

I decided it best not to speak of this to anyone....... except Annabeth. Maybe even not Annabeth.......

..........

It was fifteen minutes to noon, and Ariana was dragging me out to Thalia's tree, where the car would arrive, bringing her friends. The earlier argument and the fact that I still had leaves and bits of wood that were stuck to the back of my T-shirt were forgotten.

Ariana arrived at the top of the hill and sat cross-legged, contentedly waiting for her friends.

She'd totally changed her clothes for the arrival of her friends. She'd painted her nails and toenails black, applied a clip-on midnight-blue extension to her hair, and she was wearing jean shorts, a light blue spaghetti strap top and white flip flops.

But none of that seemed to matter as the camp van pulled up and she jumped up. The door opened and girl stepped out.

"Carmen!" Ariana ran and hugged her. Another, taller girl got out. "Karla!" And Ariana hugged her, too. And a girl of about almost six feet got out. "Mara!" Ariana hugged her, too. And a guy who was taller than Chiron when he was in his centaur status stepped out. "Danny!" Ariana gave him a one-armed hug.

"Guys, this is Percy, my half-brother," she said.

Carmen, the short one, had sandy-colored hair, warm brown eyes, and freckles. She had braces, and bangs that covered her forehead, and she was wearing a pink tank top and skinny jeans.

Karla, the slightly taller one, had dark brown hair, brown eyes, with glasses over them, and she seemed nice. She was wearing a purple, leopard print T-shirt, and gray jeans with Converse.

Mara was the tallest girl I'd seen, so naturally, I thought she'd be in the Ares cabin. She had dark, dark chestnut hair, with bangs that half-covered her eyes, which were hazel. She also had braces, but hers were bigger and less awkward-looking. She was wearing a black T-shirt with 'I Heart Zombies' printed in white and red and she was wearing dark blue denim skinny jeans.

Danny was really tall, his black hair gelled back, and he was wearing a black T-shirt. His jeans were dark and he looked older than me. By his age, most campers had already left camp. But I guess since he was never claimed, he was never really trained, so whatever.

I shook hands with all of them and Argus handed them their bags, and then we began walking up Half-Blood Hill.

"Guys, let me walk first, all in a line so we know who's who," Ariana said. The others nodded and she began walking up.

She walked past Thalia's tree, then I did, then Carmen. As she walked past, a sheaf of wheat appeared over her head. She looked up, screamed, and tried to shake it off with her arms. But Ariana told her it was her mother claiming her.

"You're a daughter of Demeter," she said.

"Oh, that's a relief," Carmen breathed. "I thought a huge bug was attacking my hair."

Then Karla walked past the tree. A lyre appeared over her head and she smiled.

"Ooh! Daughter of the hot god!" she cheered.

"Well, he's the sun god," I commented.

She looked at me with a stern eye. "That's not what I meant."

She walked past me towards Ariana and hugged her.

Mara walked past the tree and a spear appeared over her tall head. She looked up and grimaced.

"Ares, eh?" Danny commented. "Not bad. He's the war god."

Mara just walked past and crossed her arms, clearly not happy.

Danny walked past and the spear appeared above his head as well. "AWESOME!"

Danny was clearly happy about being the war god's child. Mara glared at him.

We all walked up the hill and Ariana asked me to take everyone except Karla to Chiron to get them set up. She said she'd help Karla later. I nodded and both girls walked in the opposite direction.

I shook my head as I lead the group towards the Big House. Annabeth met up with me halfway, but she knew better than to ask.

I really wondered whether or not these campers would have a happy ending as I told them where to go with Chiron.


	5. Author's Note

Ok, I've never so much as said 'Sorry for making you wait so much!' for this story, but I feel I need to say this.

I haven't been getting reviews or anything that tells me anyone is reading. I also don't know what to do with the story. Sure, there are several plot lines I want to go through, but Grace has to go on her quest, and she will obviously take Percy, but who else, I'm not sure. And I want several people to get together, but I don't know how to ensure that happens. If Annabeth goes with Grace and Percy, it's gonna be all lovey-dovey, and if Ariana goes with them then all the Big Three kids will bond over it, and become closer. However, even though Percy's quests have always been adventurous, this one won't probably be as such, because adventure and fights are hard to write. Props to J.K. Rowling, Rick Riordan, Cassandra Clare and every other adventure author out there.

Anyway, if you don't care if this story is continued/finished, just ignore this and don't give a shit. But if you do care, review and tell me what you think.

If you like love stories that aren't angst-filled, and Twilight, check out my other stories.

Oh, almost forgot. I guess you don't mind about the cursing in the third chapter, or it didn't impact you, because I didn't get any reviews saying anything like 'Hey, kids read this and it's got a K+ rating. Don't cuss like that.' or anything. My friend Karla, (which coincidentally is the person the character Karla is based on) said she was like 'Whoa, that was fierce.' Of course, we're now 9th graders, so it's like, 'We hear this every day, whatever.'

You should also know that even though what Ariana said happened at 'Prom' wasn't actually true in my life, every character that I have introduced as Ariana's friend is. Marcela, Laura, Karla, and all the others are real, me being Ariana. Richard is real, too. Our Prom was Saturday and he didn't even dance with any other girl so I can safely say that what Ariana said happened at Prom didn't happen. Phew, thank God. :) I don't even know if he likes me, but I wish.

Anyway, if you want me to continue writing, then review. If you don't, then forget about this and don't even give a shit.

'On that happy note, it's time to put on hydrating cream on my shoulders and face because of the sunburn I got after the Prom.'

-Adriana


	6. Chapter 5

**So sorry I haven't updated in so long, and then after that Author's Note I didn't update for a long time. Thing was I was going to model Ariana after myself, only I had to change the physical aspects so she could be a daughter of Poseidon. Anyway, I really liked the guy in the story, but then after the Prom a friend of his told me he liked someone else. And then I went to camp (I actually camped) and got a boyfriend. So, I don't know if I should incorporate that into the story or not. **

**And then I got really involved in my other story (a Twilight fic) and I got grounded and Mom took my laptop. I'm writing from my brother's. Ultimately, the only reason I'm writing this is because my friend Karla told me I should continue.**

**So I'm going to try, but if it sucks, just remember I never said I could write anything but fluff.**

…**.**

**Percy POV**

I watched Ariana with her friends for the rest of the weekend. With Karla and Carmen she seemed so genuine and sometimes goofy, and with Danny she seemed so funny and slightly carefree, but with Mara, she seemed different. Colder, still herself, but colder. She seemed a bit happier, specially after the Richard thing.

At dinner, we sat after giving our food and dug into the yummy BBQ. She seemed occupied, not really there, only in body.

"Ariana?" I tried to get her attention. "Ariana?"

"Huh? What?" she mumbled, startled. "What, Percy?"

"Are you okay?" I said.

"Yeah," I said. "I didn't know so many of my friends were demigods…"

"Oh, okay," I said. We were quiet—she wasn't offering any conversation, and I didn't know what to say.

Dinner and Sunday passed by, and Ariana and all her friends went to training. Richard had a sword-fighting session with me, and I wanted to talk to him. But some other kid had come into the Apollo cabin, and he needed to learn the basics before I could start practicing with Richard.

"The new kid, step up, please," I called out. In my gear and holding Riptide, I looked kind of intimidating, and this kid looked about as old as I was when I started in camp. He had black hair and fair skin, but dark eyes, and when he said his name I saw his braces. "Your name?"

"Andres," he said. He was barely taller than Ariana, and she was 5'1".

"Where are you from?" I asked. He had the same accent as Richard, only it showed Andres knew much more English than him.

"Puerto Rico," he said. Ah, another from the island. The gods really liked those tropical places, I guessed.

"Otro mas," said Richard in his laid back Spanish accent. "Eso es."

"Now, I'm just going to teach you the basics, and then we move on to some practice," I said.

Just then, a small group passed the arena. They were all older girls from the Aphrodite cabin, Ariana and Annabeth. Ariana had her black her in natural curls and she was wearing a new bracelet, coupled together with her camp T-shirt, shorts and flip flops. It looked like she was wearing a swimsuit underneath, as I could see blue string behind the collar of her shirt. Annabeth was wearing white shorts and her camp T-shirt, her hair in a long braid. I could see green string behind her collar, too. All the girls were in shorts and swimsuits, apparently.

Andres looked at them as they passed, but as I followed his eyes, they were trained on Ariana. For some reason that triggered a protectiveness that made me do something stupid.

"Annabeth?" I called. She turned, as did Ariana, and looked at me. "Where are you guys going?"

"Oh, we're going to the lake," she started. "For some reason the Aphrodite girls want to take a swim, and Ariana's cabin is doing something she's already mastered, so she's coming with us. Why do you ask?"

"You know the lake is the other way," a boy from the Apollo cabin said.

"Yeah, but I had to stop here first," Annabeth said. She walked towards me, leaning in to whisper in my ear. "Chiron wants you to go meet him by the stables as soon as you can." I nodded and she walked back to her group, and they went the way they came. Ariana waved and smiled at me as she left. I waved back, then turned to the 'class'.

"Who's that?" Andres asked.

"The blond one was my girlfriend, and if you make one blond joke I'll have your head, and the black-haired one was my half-sister. That's what Annabeth meant as her cabin—I'm her only roommate," I explained. "Now first you need to get a sword proper for your weight and—."

He cut me off. "That must be lonely," he said.

"Whatever, kid, just get on with it, I wanna have my turn," another guy from the cabin said. Andres just rolled his eyes and listened to me.

He was fine at sword fighting, but I guess he would've been better if he'd had a proper sword. Since he had to use one of the heavier ones, he sucked.

I was going to start with Richard, but one of the guys yelled out, "Hey, why don't we skip this and go see the babes at the lake?"

"Because even though they don't pay me, I only have so much time before you're upgraded, and if you suck now, you'll get hurt in the harder class," I said.

"C'mon, man, lighten up," Richard said. "Don't you wanna see your girlfriend in a bikini? I think you do."

That did it. I loved Annabeth, and she always looked beautiful, but I'd never—odd as it might sound—gone swimming with her. She thought dates should be something different, and that going to the beach wasn't so fun.

But I'd always wanted to see her in a bikini, even as perverted as it makes me sound. She'd seen me in a swimsuit—hell, for the swimming team at school I used Speedos sometimes—and I'd never seen her in a bathing suit.

"Fine, guys, but next time you're all fighting each other, and I'm not responsible if someone gets hurt—and if anyone asks, you guys pointed your swords to my throat before I gave in," I said. We dropped our armor and swords and ran to the lake. Some of the guys—like myself—already had swimsuits on and the ones who didn't—like Richard—didn't seem to care as they ran towards the lake.

When we got there Annabeth glared at me for my obvious lack of responsibility, but I didn't mind. Once she looked away and stood up, all I could look at was her body.

She was really tan, as always, and her lime-green bikini, though preservative, gave her skin a really nice glow. I tried not to look for too long, because I was sure I looked like a pervert.

Annabeth was acting like a lifeguard, and all the other girls were splashing around in the water. Ariana was the only one I couldn't see, and she'd probably figured out she didn't need to surface, so I wasn't worried. The Aphrodite girls who were here—about eight or so—were all in different and slightly revealing bikinis. They were all either pink, yellow, or red, and even the most preservative one still showed some cleavage.

Ariana resurfaced dry as the Sahara desert, and walked to the shore, then reached me. She smiled and touched her dry hair, looking at me.

"I can see why you like the water—I didn't even get wet, because I didn't want to," she said. She looked around and I did the same. Only Andres was left of the Apollo cabin; the rest had jumped in the water, swimming trunks on or not. The few girls in the cabin had been in some other class, and I had them after lunch.

"Why did you go in the lake if you didn't want to get wet?" Andres asked, walking over.

"I don't know," she said. She blushed and looked down. "It wasn't that I didn't want to get wet, just that I—oh, forget it!"

Andres shrugged and sat on a rock, and Ariana turned to look at me. "Does this look okay?" she asked.

I looked down at her. Her top was kind of V-neck, but it didn't show much, and the print—little black, green and dark blue diamonds – was pretty cool, and the bottom showed nothing. I hated acknowledging it, but she had a full chest, and I was proud to say my sister hid it and didn't make a big deal about it.

"It looks fine to me," I said.

"Really? I'm not showing too much boobies?" she asked.

"I don't wanna answer that, Ariana," I said uncomfortably.

"Ok, fine," she said. She walked back into the lake and started swimming around. I sat next to Annabeth and kissed her cheek.

"They convinced you to come see the babes in bikinis, right?" she asked, knowing me.

"They held their swords to my throat till I agreed," I said. "Would you rather I be dead?"

"Nah, I just know you, and you cave fast," she said.

After the class was done and the hunting horn blew, the guys got out and ran off, and the girls stayed in, except for Ariana, who was dry. She pulled on her clothes and ran to one of the open classrooms, and Annabeth smiled.

"She's cute, you know," she said. "I saw the new Andres guy looking at her, and I know she likes Richard, but I don't think he's into her. These girls are our age. He's thirteen. He was playing with them and touching them as though it was normal."

"Maybe in Puerto Rico it is," I said. "We don't know."

"You do know most of their customs when it comes to boys and girls and teenagers are the same as in the US," she said. "And anyway, she's going to tell you about it, she told me so."

"About what?" I asked.

"She'll tell you later," she said. "But you've got to go to Chiron now." I was reminded of that and I ran. I ran fast and finally made it to the stables.

"Ah, Percy, you got my message," he said as he saw me. I was breathless, and I leaned on one of the doors to keep from falling. "Where have you been? You look tired."

"I was…at the lake…with the Apollo boys…" I gasped out.

"What were you doing at the lake? I thought it was a sword fighting class," he said. Ice gripped my heart as I noticed my slip. I didn't know if Chiron punished, but I didn't mean to find out.

"I…uh…We had a good lesson, and I took them there to…cool off…" I said. "Most of them had their swimming trunks on anyways."

"Oh, good, good," he said. "But we must discuss a more important issue that is at hand. Grace is not training, is she?"

"I honestly haven't seen her since Friday, and she thinks she's gonna die on the quest anyway, so she thinks it's useless to train," I reported. I felt bad for spilling Grace's secrets, but I needed Chiron to know the situation.

"That's not good," he said. "She's not training. Not good. Because the gods have been talking, and they have told me they want to give her a difficult quest, so as to show her that just because she is a half-god does not mean she gets to live an easy life."

"Do you know what she'll encounter? And what she'll need to know?" I asked. Whoever was training her was in for a treat.

"She will need a bit of everything, and two very trained and ready companions," he said. "She might not encounter much, but her journey is long and she will get restless, hopeless, and at times probably snappy."

"Where is she going?" I asked. "What is her quest?"

What he whispered in my ear was something I had done, myself, and something I never wanted to do again, something I would never wish on anyone.

….

**Ariana POV**

After lunch, I ran into the cabin, wishing to make most of the few minutes I had before the Greek class. I changed out of my swimsuit and put on knee-length jeans, and looked at the small stack of envelopes on my bed. I looked through them, seeing one from Mom, Karri (one of my best friends), my brother, and the school.

I opened the one from Karri and read.

_Dear Ariana,_

_First of all, I can't believe your mom sent you to a sleep away camp in NY. That is SO COOL. But why is your phone always off? I have called you like ten times. Anyway, I was talking to Natalia and I hope you'll be here when ECLIPSE comes out, cause I wanna see it with you. I heard Marcela's in your same camp. Mara ,too, which must be a nightmare. I wanted to tell you that I was talking to JuanJo (Marcela's BF) and he told me to tell you that he asked Richard right after the Prom who he liked, and he said some other girl's name, not yours. Honey, I'm sorry. I hate the balls right out of that guy, and you deserve much better.  
In other news, they totally cancelled our favorite show, and I hate them! But the movie's better, so whatever….  
I hope to see you soon, love, Karri _

My heart fell when I read the Richard thing, and then I just felt empty. It had always seemed like he liked me, and Marcela had warned me it might have just been flirting, but I'd been smitten since late March, and now it turned out he didn't like me at all. Tears started to fall down my cheeks. Half of me hoped someone would see me like this and comfort me, and the other half hoped no one would see this and no one would know.

I hesitantly got some paper and wrote a reply.

_Dear Karri,_

_I think I might be here all summer, so sorry on that front. But we had a field trip to go see ECLIPSE, so I won't miss out on that, and I'll see it with my Alice. If he doesn't like me, then he can't appreciate how special I am, and he _is_ a douche bag anyways. I always thought this might happen but he's here, too, and he was flirting a lot, I think. Anyways, I love the movie and at least Cameron gets Bianca. :)  
Sorry for the short reply, I gotta head to the pool now, and they're waiting for me.  
Love ya, your Bella, Ariana_

I sealed it and put with my other letters. I hesitantly grabbed my brother's and out poured a stack of soccer stamps.

_Hey, sista_

_Sorry about mom not being able to put me in your camp. I'm watching all the soccer games and all that stuff. I got one guy that looks like Adam Sandler in my stamp book. I think Spain will win this year, if Brazil looses. Anyway, I hope you like camp.  
Love ya, bye._

My brother was such a sweetie. I wrote back an upbeat reply telling him camp was cool and that Spain should totally win, and that Twilight rocked, and then I opened the school's letter.

It was just my grades, and apparently, I'd done an awesome job. All A+'s. I smiled to myself and tucked it under my pillow, then turned to the only other letter for me—my mother's.

_Dear Ariana,  
I'm so very sorry I never told you about your father. Your brother's father really _does_ love you, as I do. Sweetie, I couldn't tell you about your father. I knew, but I could not tell you. If I did—well, I really don't know, since your father only told me you'd suffer more if you knew before it was time. Anyway, I think when you come home things will be a bit better. I found a radio show—Dave Ramsey—that shows you how to manage your money to have no debts. I hope to follow that so we can get better. _

_Sweetie, I know you're probably angry at me for never telling you, but I did it for the best. You're at camp now and it will seem clear. Please don't be angry when you come home. Love, Mom _

On the back there was a picture of the family, and then a picture of me at the Prom. I looked nice, but my hair had been a mess.

Anyway, I reread the letter twice, trying to understand it. Finally, I wrote a reply.

_Dear Mom,_

_I'm not particularly angry at you. I think (honestly) it's unfair that you never told me, but I'm also thankful that you didn't. I mean, who wouldn't freak out if their Mom told them their Dad was a Greek god? Anyway, don't tell me about Dave Ramsey—I don't wanna know. :)  
Bye Mom, see you soon_

I sealed it and put it on the stack, running for my next class. This was the unluckiest moment of the day for me—I had a Greek lesson with the Apollo kids. Richard would be there, and I didn't want to see him.

Oh, I'm so sorry that when Percy was eavesdropping, you didn't catch what happened. I'll tell you—with the whole back story included.

See, when I like a boy, and then it turns out he doesn't like me (which has happened once because I never told him), it takes me _forever_ to get over him. I'm serious, I liked this guy since the start of sixth and he left, and then by March of seventh I finally got over him. I started liking Richard a year later. And then at the Prom, we were all dancing—fifty-five thirteen year olds—and rocking out to Pop songs. Then _Sexy Bitch_ came on and I was directly in front of him, just a wall of people between us. I felt our eyes meet a few times during '_Trying to find the words to describe this girl, Without being disrespectful_' and I felt special.

Then I was sitting with Mara and her sister and I looked over my shoulder and saw Richard kissing Tinia, a girl who had a crush on him since fifth grade. Now with what Karri told me, I knew he didn't like me. I needed to at least try to forget him, but he is _here_. Of all places, he had to be here. Honestly, I couldn't have a moment's peace. Now he was saying he was sorry, but for what? I didn't get boys _at all_.

I sighed and got up, dusted myself off and headed to the Greek classroom. One of the Senior campers from the Athena cabin that wasn't Annabeth was teaching us, and I knew that even though I'd be bored to death, the sooner I learned the sooner I'd get some other lesson at this time.

I walked inside the classroom and there were nine other people in the room. Karla, Richard, a kid with curly blond hair called Will, the guy that looked like Zac Efron called Chris, the guy who looked like the description of Harry Potter—minus the green eyes—actually called Harry, a girl who was shorter than most with brown hair and glasses called Miriam, the new guy I'd seen at Percy's 'class' who's name I didn't know, Will's sister—who looked a lot like him—Tanya, and the guy who was teaching.

"Okay, this is the Poseidon girl?" the guy asked. Like Annabeth, he had blond hair and gray eyes. I nodded. "Okay then. Everyone, sit on the floor, be comfortable, and—." Karla stopped him.

"Um, why on the floor?" she asked.

"Because I say so," he said. "However, as I want you to be comfortable, sit with whoever you like."

My mind instantly flashed to Richard, but then I remembered Karri's letter and Tinia's lips on his. I tried to make eye contact with Karla, but she was sitting with Tanya and Miriam. I knew Miriam, but I also knew Tanya hated me, and I didn't wanna go there.

I looked around—everyone was already sitting down with at least one person next to them. Everyone except the new kid. He looked at me the second I noticed him and I waved him over. He smiled and sat next to me, and I sat cross-legged on the floor.

When the guy saw we were all comfortable, speaking for the others, and the guy started making us learn the Greek alphabet, then some verbs. By the time the hour was up, his stupid alphabet jingle was stuck in my head.

Karla came up to me and helped me get off my lazy butt, pulling me up with her hand. "Hey, what do you have next?" she asked.

"Beginner's archery," I answered. "I still suck at it. I mean, if I can't even hit a ball in the right direction, how the hell am I gonna _shoot_ in that direction?"

"Oh, well that sucks," she said. "I have Greek History, so I guess we'll catch up later."

"Okay, yeah," I said. I watched her walk off with Tanya and Miriam, and I guessed they were headed to Greek History, too. I put my hands in my pockets and started walking towards the archery arena.

I was in a way alone. My friends had all discovered siblings, and all I had was Percy, who was great. And while my friends were off with their siblings, mine was working on more advanced things, and I was always alone. The only new member of the Poseidon cabin, who had to take the Beginner's and Standard's classes.

"Hey," I heard someone call. I turned. It was the guy who sat next to me. He jogged up to meet me and stopped when he was three feet from me. "I couldn't help but overhear, as you were right next to me, and I have Beginner's archery, too. And I noticed you were all alone, so…."

"Okay," I said. "My name's Ariana, by the way."

"I'm Andres," he said. "Hey, you don't actually look very American. Where are you from?" We began walking.

"Puerto Rico, just by the metro area in Hato Rey," I said.

"I lived near the Federal Jail," he said.

"That's so cheerful," I said sarcastically. "Do you go inside the military base there?"

"Nah," he said. "We live near it, not in it."

"I didn't know there was living space there, like in Patch," I said absentmindedly, thinking of my time in Germany.

"Patch?" he asked. "And I don't know either, though I know there's a hotel."

"Oh, sorry," I said. "Thinking out loud. Um, Patch is one of the four military bases in Stuttgart, Germany, and I know as a fact there's a hotel in the base here—I've stayed in it."

"Really?" he asked.

"Well, it was for a girl's birthday party, but yeah, I did," I answered.

"Cool," he said. "Can I ask you one thing?"

"You already asked one thing, but go on," I said.

"Ha, clever," he said. "Anyway, why is it you're alone?"

"Because Poseidon is one of the Big Three, and after World War II he wasn't supposed to have any more children, but Percy and I were produced anyway," I answered. "And this is like his sixth year in camp, so he's practically teaching classes and doing other, more advanced stuff. He's helping a girl train for her quest, but most people's bets are she's gonna die."

"They are so sweet to her," he said, obviously being sarcastic. "And how come you know so many people here?"

"Oh, because most of my friends are here," I said. "I wish Juliet or Haven were here, but Marcela, Karla, Carmen, Mara, Danny, Richard and Laura are here, and most of them are close friends of mine. They told me that once a law about every demigod having to be claimed before they were thirteen, they raked through every country to find every kid."

"So you're kind of like, forbidden, in a way," he said.

"I guess, but Grace is worse," I said, trying to explain. "See, her mom's Hera, Queen of the Heavens, and wife of Zeus, and though other gods are married, they still have demigod kids. But Hera pledged—or so I think—never to have a child with anyone besides Zeus. She was always pissed when he went around, falling in love with human women, so she killed the women indirectly, I think.

"It was a nasty shock for everyone when Grace was claimed as Hera's kid. And now she's got to go on this quest, and she hasn't even been to camp for two weeks," I said. "I heard Percy got his first quest after like three weeks, and it was a hard one, but he lived, obviously."

"And does everyone get quests?" he asked. We were near the archery arena by now—we had to be.

"From what I understand, when the time comes, the Oracle of Delphi gives you a riddle or rhyme, and that guides you through your quest. You pick two people you really trust, and then you go off. Some quests have deadlines, some require something you have to bring back, and some are just like 'Go here, do that, get proof you did it and come back'." I sighed. "But new kids hardly ever get a quest unless they're _really_ important. I heard Annabeth had to wait seven years until she got her chance to lead a quest."

"Who's Annabeth?" he asked.

"Right, as a new guy you wouldn't know, but she's Percy's girlfriend," I said. "The blond who took us to the lake today."

His eyes kind of glazed over and he smiled. I wondered what that could possibly be about, but by then we'd gotten to the arena, and some of the newer kids were here. The lesson started and I successfully stabbed some guy in the arm with the arrow. Well, successfully for me since he'd been hitting on me and I was too angry to aim right, but not very good for him.

When the lesson finished, I was walking towards sword-fighting lessons when Percy caught up with me.

"What's up?" I asked.

"You have to come with me, now," he said. He sounded agitated, and he looked the part, too.

"What happened? Is Marcela hurt? Or anyone hurt?" I asked frantically.

"No, no one's hurt—except that guy you shot with your arrow—it's Grace," he said. "She needs encouragement from a girl, and Annabeth's busy."

"Fine," I said. We walked to the Hera cabin and I found Grace to be a sobbing mess on the floor.

Dammit, I can _never_ have a moment's peace.


	7. Not An UpdateSorry!

I'm so sorry, but sadly, this is not an update. (No chapter of mine would be so embarrassingly short.) Hopefully, one of those is on the way as you read. *I was about to type 'as we speak', but I realized we aren't speaking and that would've just made me look like an idiot.

I want to say a few things, because I know I haven't updated in like forever, both stories. *This note will be posted on the Twilight fic and the Percy Jackson fic.*

I just wanted to leave you a little Author's Note to say that I am indeed alive, well, and handling a hectic schedule.

First, I haven't had much time to write-I've barely had time to study for school. I need to get good grades because now my grades count for college, and I want to get into a good college.

Second, I had to read Frankenstein *not done yet* and the new Percy Jackson book came out. It's not exactly Percy Jackson, but I am obsessed.

Third, it was my birthday on Tuesday J . I am fourteeeeeeeeen! (hehe)

And fourth, I finally got to go to a Jonas Brothers concert. It was from the Camp Rock 2 tour, so Demi Lovato opened, and she is a great performer. Her voice sounds a tad girlier, but that is her voice, and she is amaziiiiing. Alyson Stoner and Ana Maria Perez de Tagle and Matthew MDOT Finley all were awesome. And then Demi sang Catch Me 3. And then the Jonas Brothers. Ahhh. They were pretty good, but I would've been happier if they'd sung some new stuff. It was still great, though. Nick sang Introducing Me under 2:20 minutes. The epic fail of the night was that I was so expecting to see Demi and Joe sing Wouldn't Change A Thing, and they didn't. But oh well.

Now, I promise, I am working super hard on both stories, and I've started writing both chapters already. And during History class I came up with the idea of a sequel for Catch Me, so tell me if you'd like to read it. J

-Lots of Love, Adriana *Gabreilla*

(For the Percy Jackson story, as I have not updated on it for much longer, I will try to update sooner and will post my review of The Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero.)


	8. Chapter 6

**Sorry for not updating in so long. I have a friend who's reading this, and she positively hates me for not updating. (I love you, Karla!) ****J *The promised review will be at the bottom so if you have not read The Lost Hero and see a HUGE paragraph at the end, SKIP IT! **

***For those of you who have already devoured the newest Rick Riordan book, this takes place the summer after the Titan War, and since I didn't know what or when Mr. Riordan was writing about, this is now an Alternate Universe. No Jason, Piper (God, I love her!), Leo, Drew, Romans or Gaea.* **

**APOV:**

"Grace, Grace, shh, it's okay, shh," I murmured to her crying form on the floor.

She just wailed louder, completely ignoring my advice.

"Aw, _come on_!" I groaned. "I _never_ get a break! Grace, what is it?"

"I—I—I don't kn—know if I c—can do t—the q—quest!" she gasped out between sobs.

"Do you know what it is?" I asked gently. I used my arms to gently guide her to sit on the bed with me and hugged her from the side.

"No," she sniffed. Her sobs started dying down. Finally they stopped altogether, even though the tears flowed down her face still. "I just know I won't make it."

"What makes you think _that_?" I asked. Well, she kind of had a point—she sucked at everything that would be useful in a fight. I mastered like two of the many, many battle skills taught.

"I suck at _everything_!" she wailed. "I'm going to _die_ on that quest if I go!"

"Look, it's not too late to train," I started. "Look at me." I stayed silent until she looked up and looked into my eyes—chocolate brown into sea green. "If you know the basics and have two good fighters with you, you'll be fine. But you have to know _something_. And sitting here crying your eyes dry isn't going to help you learn how to fight. So you're gonna go with Percy and train this week, got it?"

She nodded weakly. "But I don't want to train alone."

"Then you can train with me," I offered thoughtlessly. "Since the only other person in my cabin is Percy, I'll train with you for moral support. That, and I really hate the classes I take sometimes." I smiled at her.

"Okay," she said. "Let me get cleaned up." She stood and went to the bathroom, washed her face and brushed her hair and came back. Her face reminded me a bit of Jessica Olsen from the Disney movie Starstruck, for some reason. Anyway, she looked into my eyes, and she was just the kind of person that when they look at you, it feels as if their eyes are seeing straight into your soul. And I felt as if she was seeing everything I was thinking—from Andres being cute to Richard being an ass—and I didn't like it.

"Ariana, you promise you'll train with me?" she asked.

"Yes," I said firmly.

"Well then let's get going, there's lots you need to learn by Friday, which is when you go to the Oracle—speaking of which, I have to find out when Rachel gets here," he said.

"Who's Rachel?" I asked.

"Oh, she's the new Oracle," he said nonchalantly.

"Who was the old Oracle?" Grace asked.

"A hippie mummy," he said, again nonchalantly. "She gave me my first quest. I still get the creeps when I think about it. You're lucky this Oracle is very much alive—and isn't green. She's just pale."

I tried to laugh to fill my confusion, as did Grace, but we both were confused.

"Don't worry—Rachel is awesome," he said. He got a kind of dreamy look in his eyes, kind of the way Marcela did when she was talking about JuanJo, her boyfriend back home.

"Do you _like_ Rachel?" I asked.

He backtracked very quickly. "No, no, no, no. I like her as a friend. Plus, as the Oracle she can't date."

"Annabeth must not be too sad about that," I whispered to Grace. She giggled.

"Did you ever like Rachel?" I asked, oh so nosy.

"Well, kind of, maybe, but in the midst of that I really also liked Annabeth more, and then some other crap happened, but in any case, I always liked Annabeth more than Rachel," he defended.

"I think he still has feelings, don't you?" I asked Grace.

"Sure seems that he does," she said.

"Any opinions you have keep them to yourself," Percy said. "Rachel doesn't like me, even if she did, and if Annabeth found out she'd claw my eyes out."

"Aw, come on," I said. "She can't be _that_ bad. Besides, you're sixteen—if you like someone, then you do. You can't help it. It's your hormones, not you."

"Yeah, but anything I do could hurt Annabeth, and I _really_ don't want to do that," he said. "Now, go! Get to the Big House and Chiron will tell you what to do, where to go, and how you know when you're done."

"Aren't you coming with us?" Grace asked, alarmed.

"No," he said. "I have to go talk to Annabeth about Rachel coming in late, because she said she'd be here by Saturday. Anyway, I'll join you in like twenty minutes."

"Fine," I muttered.

Grace and I walked towards the Big House, where indeed Chiron was waiting for us, and he had a piece of paper in his hands. We stopped right in front of him and he towered over us.

"Ariana, what a lovely surprise," he said pleasantly, "what are you doing here?"

"Grace asked me to train with her," I said simply.

"And you are sure it will not disrupt any of your other lessons?"

"I can make up for it—Grace's quest is more important that knowing who ate Kronos," I said. Thunder momentarily roared in the sky. "Okay, maybe it is important, but I already know more than half the stuff they're teaching me—in my History class we had to do a mythology project on any mythology we wanted. I picked Greek mythology because it's so fun and interesting."

"Well, if that is how you feel, then all right," he said. He brought up his hand and gave Grace the piece of paper. "This is your schedule for the next week. You have a Pegasus riding class, archery, sword fighting, summarized History, a strength and ability class, swimming class, and then a two-day camping to see how you manage."

"And Percy doesn't have to do any of this, does he?" I asked naively.

"He's done all of it, and he's an expert at most of it," Chiron said. "Now, chop chop, off you go, you have archery with the Hades cabin now."

"Wait, there's a Hades cabin? How many kids are in it?" Grace asked.

"One, but he is very important," Chiron said. "It's a new cabin—and he must be about thirteen or so by now."

"Okay," I said. "Where's archery?"

"Oh, there's Nico right now," Chiron said. "NICO! NICO!"

We looked behind us and sure enough there was a kid with brown hair who looked like he hadn't gotten enough sleep in the past few weeks wearing a too-big black jacket over his orange camp T-shirt. He looked up to where his name was being called and smiled a small, tight smile. I could see he wasn't very comfortable here.

Chiron trotted over to him and Grace and I followed at a slightly slower pace. She had my reflects, it seemed—she knew something was up with this kid.

"Nico," Chiron said.

"Yeah?" the kid—Nico—said.

"These are the two girls you are doing archery with," Chiron said. Just as he said 'girls', we appeared next to him.

"So that's the Hera kid? And that's the other Poseidon kid?" Nico asked.

"Yeah, in a way," I said. "But I'm about as old as you, so watch it."

I was like two inches taller than him, even with the combat boots he was wearing.

"Please show them to the archery ground and then to the Pegasi stables," Chiron said. Nico nodded and the horse man walked off.

"Follow me," Nico said. He started walking very fast and we followed at a sprint. "Okay, listen to me, you may have an attitude with Chiron, and Annabeth and Percy and everybody else, but you listen to me, and don't go bothering me—I have powers that are unimaginable to you."

"You're still no better than us," I said. "You're a kid of the Big Three. So am I. Grace is a daughter of Hera, which makes her important, too. But just because of our parents it doesn't mean we're better than anyone else—like a daughter of Apollo or something."

"Yeah, well, no daughter of Apollo did what I did last summer," he muttered. "You don't even know what I did last summer, do you?"

"No," I said, feeling stupid. "No one bothered to tell me."

"Figures," he said. "No matter what I did, Hades is always overlooked." He sighed. "Last year, at the battle, all the gods were fighting a Titan, trying to prevent it from destroying _more_ of the United States, and Hades was just staying put in the Underworld, where Demeter was, too, and Persephone, keeping safe. And I convinced him to help and fought so hard. Thanks to him, Poseidon could do something else and the demigods were able to get to Olympus in time. But obviously it's not important enough for you to know."

I felt ignorant and mean. His actions had been crucial to the fight, yet no one had thought them important enough to be told.

"Nico, I'm sorry," I said.

"Don't say sorry," he said harshly. "It's not your fault. If no one told you, you wouldn't know. Now let's get to archery before the teacher freaks out—she's prone to that."

"Hey, why are most of the teachers teenagers?" Grace asked. "I mean, I haven't really been to so many classes, but some girls told me."

"Because it's usually the senior counselors who teach," he said. "Senior counselors are the ones who have survived past sixteen and have excelled in at least one area, so when the counselor that was teaching goes out to college, the new one comes in. Every cabin, except Hades, Zeus and Hera have a Senior counselor, because I'm the only Hades kid, Zeus is empty at the moment and you're the only Hera kid."

"So Percy and Annabeth are Senior counselors?" I asked.

"Annabeth excels at everything—except writing…for some reason she just can't write a story," he said. "Percy is the slacker, but he's a natural at sword fighting, and he's been in lots of fights and tough spots, so he's good at all that stuff."

Just then, we entered a small arena and a pretty African American girl looked up. She was wearing jean shorts and the camp T-shirt, along with sneakers, and her super curly hair was in a ponytail.

The girl taught us the basics, and to say Grace was amazing would be the understatement of the millennia. I don't know how she did it, but she hit the target every single time. She was a natural.

I, however, didn't get so lucky.

Having no coordination, knowing it and accepting it, those are things a non-athlete knows about herself. I count myself in with that group. Most of my friends were in some sport, like softball, volleyball, cheerleading, even swimming, but I just sucked at all sports. I got in a few lucky shots, but really, I had no coordination. It was a wonder Hayley—our teacher—got out unharmed.

"Sorry," I said for the millionth time as we left the arena, glancing back at the equipment I somehow broke.

"It's fine, I got more in the store," Hayley called. She looked so irritated, though, that I could tell she'd never make up for what she'd lost thanks to me.

Once we were out of earshot, Grace burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" Nico asked.

"Did you see Hayley's face when Ariana almost hit her nose?" she gasped out.

"I didn't do it on purpose," I muttered defensively. That only made them laugh harder.

They laughed the whole way to the stables, but this time, I was actually good at riding a Pegasus, and Grace fell off twice before her Pegasus had even started flying. I had a bit more skill and luck, but our teacher, a nice girl from the Aphrodite cabin, reassured her, telling her this was only a skill heroes learned for a 'JIC' escape, and it wasn't necessary. Which of course made me feel stupid because it was the only thing in this damned camp that I was good at.

The whole week went by like that. Grace and I would go to some lesson, she'd be a natural at it and I'd try to at least attempt to do it right. When Thursday morning arrived, we'd taken all the lessons at least three times (hell yeah, we had busy schedules) and were at least remotely good. And when I say remotely good I speak for myself.

Today was our last day of training, and we had every lesson back to back, in each a test to see if we were fit enough. I knew my future didn't depend on how I did on this, but I felt concerned for Grace.

Despite the hatred for that name, caused by a girl in my school, I had grown fond of Grace. She understood me, she was like me in many ways, and she advised me a lot. She was a super sweet girl who had just been thrown into a hard situation, and I could understand what that was like. She understood my Twilight and Harry Potter obsessions, she didn't mind the stupidity of my jokes or the randomness of my conversations, and she was just a great friend.

I mean, back home, I had many close friends. Friends I had known for two or three years, four tops, but Grace and I just clicked, like we were meant to be friends.

Silmarie was a girl I'd known since fifth grade, but at the Junior Prom, the day later, we talked for five hours, and somehow, we became best friends in those five hours. Grace was just like that, the difference being that I'd bonded with Silmarie talking about boys, experiences and giving advice to one another, and with Grace, it was battle training, joking about my suckish-ness at sports and laughing when Annabeth tried to make a joke.

The point was, Grace was now in my best friends list, and I cared about her and her stupid quest.

…

Grace did exceptionally well on all of her tests, except Greek History. I did pretty good, except Greek History, which was a perfect score.

At dinner, Percy and I were eating at our table, and Grace was eating alone at hers. Annabeth was with her siblings, and Richard and Andres were with theirs.

For those of you who are anxious to hear what's happened, (Yeah, Aphrodite chicks, I'm talking about you!), _nothing_ has happened. I don't feel anything for Andres and I still get a little heartbroken when I see Richard. Yet this week, I only saw them during meals. This was good, but it was also terrible because I began anticipating meals, and didn't pay as much attention as I should to the current lesson.

Percy cleared his throat and brought me back to dinner.

"What?" I asked.

"Richard asked me why you haven't been around these past few days…" he said.

"And?" I asked.

"I told him you were training with Grace," he said slowly.

"I know there's more to this, Percy, you suck at being subtle," I said. "Just spit it out."

"Richardwantstoknowifyou'regoingonthequest."

"English, please?"

Percy took a deep breath.

"Richard wants to know if you're going on the quest," he said.

"Why does he even care? He doesn't even like me anyway," I muttered bitterly, remembering Kari's pretty handwriting, those words that ripped through my heart written in the lilac colored paper I'd given her before graduation.

"What do you mean he doesn't like you?" Percy asked, almost dropping his hamburger.

"I have a friend who was talking to Richard's best friend and she told me Richard told the guy that Richard liked someone else," I said.

"Then the guy was misinformed," Percy said. "Richard keeps pelting me every day with questions about you, and he asks me if you like him." He sighed. "I keep telling him you don't talk about your feelings because I didn't know if it was okay to tell him or not."

"I'm just so exhausted I can hardly feel anything except the burn in every part of my body from all the training," I said, trying to lighten the mood.

"Can I tell him you like him or not?" Percy deadpanned. "And that Andres kid keeps asking about you, too. What do I tell _him_?"

"Tell Andres I don't like him and tell Richard I like him a little bit," I said.

"You should be in the Aphrodite cabin, messing with boys' hearts and all," Percy joked.

….

Waking up the next morning knowing the enormity of the day was hard.

For starters, my favorite work out tennis shoes were muddy and disgusting-looking, and my shorts weren't clean.

I had pretty, shiny hair, sure, but that didn't mean the curls looked the way I wanted them to. And just when something big or important is happening, you get a zit. It wasn't very noticeable, but it hurt like hell. Percy looked at me and chuckled.

"I hate the 'No AC' policy, too, Ariana," he said. "Go take a shower. I'll tell the Aphrodite girls to bring some hair product or something, or maybe someone will come to help you. Just let me get dressed."

"Shower while I clean up," I offered. "It's only fair. You clean up every morning."

"Okay, fine," he said. He grabbed a blue towel, a T-shirt, jeans and underwear and walked to the bathroom.

I made both beds, tidied everything up, straightened my bedside table and got out my clothes for the day. I was going to wear my Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, my Roxy jeans that got to half the calf and still looked good and my worn out black Converse. I figured if the Aphrodite girls were going to work on my hair and face they'd do a good job, so I only took out a satin small black bow for my hair. It was noticeable against my black hair, thankfully, and it was just the cutest thing from Hot Topic.

I sat on the bed, rereading Kari's letter. I didn't know who to believe. Kari would never lie to me, but JuanJo wasn't exactly the nicest guy. I mean, he was nice, but he wasn't the best. He could've lied to Kari, or Richard could've asked him to lie if anyone asked him. I just knew Percy wouldn't lie to me. He was too nice, sincere, genuine and brotherly. He wouldn't tell me something to hurt me. But it was still hard to believe Richard would like me.

Percy bustled out of the bathroom, pulled some sneakers on and told me to go shower.

"The Aphrodite girls will be here soon," he said, walking out.

I grabbed a towel and my clothes.

The showers in Camp Half-Blood were unique. For one, the shampoo and conditioner were always either strawberry scented or dandruff products, the water was exactly the temperature you wanted (by magic) and you always felt refreshed after a shower, no matter how short it was.

I swear, I could've stayed under that water all day, but about ten minutes after I stepped in, I heard a knock on the door.

"Ariana, hurry! You'll be late for breakfast!" yelled Hayley, the archery teacher who was fond of and yet ticked off at me.

"Alright! Gimme five minutes to dry off and get dressed!"

I shut off the water reluctantly and dried myself as thoroughly as I could. I put my clothes on and brushed my teeth, brushed my wet hair and walked out.

Hayley, Penelope and Grace were in sitting in my bed, looking at me. Penelope was a pretty blond with bright blue eyes and pale skin, and she was holding a blow-drier and straightening iron. Hayley was holding a make up bag and Grace was just sitting there.

"Okay," Hayley said, "you start with her hair. I'll do Gracie here."

And then they told me to close my eyes. I felt heat killing my always-natural hair, then crushing it and burning it, until they told me to open my eyes.

"Whoa! You _killed_ my hair!" I shouted.

"No, silly, we straightened it," Hayley said. "It looks longer, shinier, but still just as pretty and healthy."

"This _cannot_ be good for my hair," I said.

"Oh, don't worry, we use so many hair care products there's no way your hair will suffer," Penelope assured me.

"Whatever," I muttered. "I still like the curls more."

"I envy those curls," Hayley said. "My hair is so hard to control, I would kill for hair like that."

"That's just a figure of speech, right?" I asked, truly concerned about my safety.

Hayley laughed. "Yeah, don't worry."

"Phew!" The girls laughed and I smiled. Then they told me to close my eyes again and started putting stuff on my face. Finally they said they were done.

"This is the very best make up Mom gives us," Penelope said. "It's water-, sweat-, sun- and make-out-proof make up."

"Make-out-proof make up?" Grace asked.

"Yeah," Hayley said. "We didn't go overboard because even the Aphrodite girls look ridiculous with so much stuff on. But we perfected your faces, and that make up won't wear off until you go to sleep at night." They smiled and left.

I looked at Grace. Her normally wavy hair had been curled more accurately and her skin was a tad more tan and she had no visible blemishes as opposed to the pimples she always had on her forehead. Man, if they made a beautiful girl look like that, what could they do to an average looking girl like me?

I reluctantly raised my eyes to the mirror.

My hair was way too straight, and while it was pretty, everyone always complimented my natural-looking hair, and this was sure as hell not natural-looking. My pimples were completely covered up by the make up, and my skin wasn't shiny. I looked so nice. I smiled.

"Let's go to breakfast," I said.

Grace and I got looks from everyone as we walked towards breakfast. She sat at her table, I sat at mine. I knew that deep down Grace was nervous about her mother coming later today. Hera was known to be. . . . not fond of heroes. Grace had told me she wasn't sure if that applied to her. She was worried about what her mother would think. She was freaking out about the quest.

She knew she could only take two people, and she told me she had already chosen them, but she didn't know if they'd agree or not. She didn't know what the hell she had to do, and Annabeth told her that usually, prophecies had a double meaning, and they weren't clear.

And then on Tuesday we'd met Rachel.

She had red hair, freckles, pale skin and sometimes she could be weird. Obviously, being the Oracle she wanted to look all genie-ish, with the shawls, sequin skirts and bright colors, but she always had this black cardigan over everything it made her look mysterious. Sometimes she walked into cabins and started chanting around the statue of the god, went all tense and smiled. I asked her what she was doing one time when she started chanting in the Hera cabin, but she only smiled and said she had a premonition something was coming.

Anyway, Grace, Marcela, Laura, Karla, Richard and I spent the whole day together. We walked around, talked, pulled pranks on the Aphrodite cabin (told them the NY fashion week had started and they were all invited to be models, then when they got excited told them it was a lie. One girl and two guys cried.) and did every relaxing thing you could think of.

Then Chiron called us to the Big House. Thank you very much, Hera, for getting here when our day was actually nice.

"Get her the prophecy already!" Hera was yelling.

Rachel was glaring at the goddess, and Annabeth looked very close to taking out her knife and trying to do some damage. Percy leaned against the wall, looking like he was trying to control his anger, and Hera just sat, angry and exasperated.

"Hello, Queen Hera," Chiron said. "Welcome." Everyone groaned, very visibly not caring about the goddess. "Everyone sit, please. Thank you. Now, Rachel, a prophecy please."

I closed my eyes. Her voice turned echoed, sounding like a snake would if it could talk, or something similar.

"_You shall go west  
Talk to the goddess at last  
Take two equals like thou  
And see a flying cow  
But take care  
A friend and parent you must beware"_

Then I heard a thud on the floor. I opened my eyes. Percy and Annabeth were helping Rachel into a chair.

"It's obvious you have to go to the Underworld," Percy started. "And take two people you think are equals."

"Grace, dear, who would you like to accompany you on your quest?" Hera asked.

"Umm," Grace started. All eyes were on her, and I could sense she didn't like it. "I—I want Percy and Ariana."

Thank you, Grace, for making my summer _so much more interesting._ Not.

**Just so you know, I've had that prophecy written since July, and I decoded it in August. Let's just say Nico was there for a reason. ;)**

**Tell me what you thought of the chapter, review, and any encouragement telling me to continue is accepted too. ****J**

**Now, *SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!* my review of 'The Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero'**

**First off, I think that in Percy Jackson, since it was only one person the books were going to be about, it was fine to use first person, but in the new books, since it's about like three different people, the third person POV works fine. **

**It's a very well-written book, and I loved it. I love Piper, Jason and Leo, and they have gained a new place in my heart. **

**I realized I didn't have much to say here, so if you wanna talk in-depth about the book, PM or review me. Thanks.**

**-Love, Adriana**


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